After that he was promoted to running a retail dealership in Middleton, Ohio, about miles from Louisville.
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He did that for one year, and then was moved back to Akron to serve as manager of field training. In , Towery was named to Firestone's commercial tire sales team. In , he was named the number one commercial salesman for the company. This advertisement is from a Louisville newspaper, circa , when an 8. Another aspect of his job was to travel to new Firestone stores before their grand openings to make sure everything was in line with company policy and review all the store personnel.
He traveled anywhere a store opened — from California to New York.
Plus he was one of five college recruiters for the executive management program. All three stores were in the Louisville market, which had 10 Firestone stores in total.
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How did he do it? As was common in the s, the store was connected to a shopping plaza. The shopping center management was threatening to terminate its lease.
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These mall stores typically had long hours — from a. Towery says he was always at the store until after closing, and if he was there past p. I kept a shaving kit and a set of clean clothes at the store to use in the morning. During the late s, Towery wanted to "merchandize the store with excitement. I wanted it to look like a jewelry box. He set big goals for the location. In those days, it was the Firestone format to use jewel tones in the stores such as ruby reds and golds, plus furnish the stores with wall-to-wall carpeting and fancy wall paper.
Not everything went smoothly. Towery notes the assistant manager had to be let go because he would not adapt to the new program. He recalls a good example of how this relationship can pay off. Very late one Christmas Eve, a customer, Tom Fryer, called him at home. But when I went to pick it up, it had been sold out from under me. This child will be devastated on Christmas morning. I know your stores sold these bikes.
Guts. Gumption. God.
Is there any chance you still have one? Towery had stocked his stores with several hundred of the popular bikes. He told Fryer he did indeed have one or two remaining in boxes. It was close to midnight. Towery had already been in bed. But at 1 a. The church even bought enough air conditioners from Towery to cool its whole sanctuary. Impressed with his success, Firestone asked him to take on more stores. One store employee, Tom Reese, had great potential, Towery felt.
He was put in charge of a store for Towery. Towery and Reese worked well together, and in , Towery was starting to feel like he wanted to run his own dealership. He asked Reese if he was interested in going into business with him. So Towery figured he could go it alone, and wrote Firestone a long letter saying he wanted his own store in Louisville.
He wrote that he felt the market was under-represented and emphasized that Firestone would benefit from having an aggressive dealer like him in the market. He went to Akron to present his plan. Firestone wanted him to work at headquarters again. The company flew him back into Akron a second time to plead its case. He wanted his own store. He had already picked out a good location, a shuttered Marathon gas station. Firestone bought the land, built a building and leased it back to Towery.
The store was getting ready to open, but his suppliers refused to supply him! His friend agreed it was workable. All the Firestone financial people ran the numbers, too. Everyone agreed the plan looked good. The money was enough to prove credit-worthiness to the suppliers. And true to his word, two years later Towery opened a second store, and a third was opened a year later.
The company now has 16 locations — nine in the Louisville area; three in Lexington and one in Danville, Ky. Its newest store was opened in Another one is in the planning stages; the company expects to break ground on it next April or May. Once started, construction at the bay shop is expected to take about days.
Ken Towery Tire and AutoCare
Traffic count passing by the new corner lot is the highest in the whole state of Kentucky, Towery points out, totaling 77, cars a day. Towery also is looking at several other locations, and in the next five years, he hopes to add six to seven more stores. Although he started out as a Firestone-only retailer, in Towery added the Michelin brand. Why did he branch out? Plus there were other dealers they could go to. I wanted to be able to service all their needs. His outlets specialize in passenger and light truck tires. However, the wholesale division does offer medium truck tires as well.
In addition, the wholesale division has dealer customers in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia. Although a very small part of its business, used tires also are offered at his stores. With seven delivery trucks, the division delivers to all 16 Ken Towery's locations as well as other customers in four states.
Each location typically has eight or nine bays utilizing in-ground or above-ground Challenger lifts. The company offers brake service, shocks, struts, wheel alignment, air conditioning service, engine diagnostics, batteries, exhaust work — pretty much everything except engine swaps. Oil changes are performed using an above-bay reel system connected to gallon tanks of Kendall oil.
The company does not offer nitrogen tire filling, but Towery has looked into it and is trying to justify the cost of equipping all 16 stores with nitrogen generators. What are your competitors doing? The dealership offers most services except engine swaps. It has no annual fee and offers 90 days interest free on any qualified amount.
Towery says the response to the card has been very positive. It also utilizes a nearby Jefferson Technical College facility, where it sends its service technicians for hands-on training in electrical work, brakes, alignment and other services.
The company is big on having its techs ASE certified. New general service hires work with an experienced designated trainer for a period of time.
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A policy to help eliminate the possibility of wheel-offs was just put into place. One tech mounts the tires and signs off on the service. The car is dropped to the ground and a second tech uses a torque wrench to do the final tightening of the lug nuts. His signature is required to sign off on this step. A salesman checks for the two signatures. Towery is serious about this policy, and, in fact, has regrettably had to fire techs for not adhering to it.
All store managers and sales people have their own monthly meetings, during which they cover a wide variety of categories such as road hazard warranties, secret shopper reports and customer service. Every sale is different, Towery admits. And he can testify that step 3 is tricky. He recalls that very early in his career, he greeted a customer by his beat-up, old Cadillac. The man was dressed in worn-out clothes.
But he proceeded with the sale and recommended his top-of-the-line Firestone tires. To his surprise, the man accepted the suggestion. Then Towery started worrying about collecting the money. He thought, if the guy pays on credit, it may be bad, or what if his check bounces and the company loses the money? But he wrote up the sales ticket and the car was taken to the service bays for the tire installation. In fact, your vehicle warranty may be voided if you use 10W motor oil. Regular maintenance, including oil changes, is the most cost-effective way to keep an older vehicle on the road.
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